Dear Q, Q+ and Q Team:
Thank you for all you do. The nursing home workers of NY need your help.
A while back, I posted about what the NYC nursing home workers were dealing with. No help, no PPE being shipped in, stressful conditions, patients being returned from the hospitals sicker than they left us, no hazard pay like the hospital workers received. All we got was scorn due to the death rates. Cuomo was not sending in any help for us.
Now that the cases have decreased, the nursing homes are now, 2 months later, being made to have all employees get swabbed TWO times per week. If this were free, paid for by the state, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. In order to get free testing, you have to go to an offsite location. Many workers work 2 jobs, double shifts, and getting swabbed 2x per week will be an added struggle in an already stressful situation.
If you go through work, it has been said that your insurance covers one swabbing, then you pay out-of-pocket. If you have no insurance, it is all out-of-pocket. There is no end date to this invasive procedure. If we don’t get the 2 swabbings, we do not get our paycheck.
I was immunity tested, at my own cost, and tested negative: no immunity. I have swab-hell in my future.
We love our patients, but as my spouse pointed out: We have sacrificed our own health, and that of our families, to care for our patients. Now we need to endure the swabbing, incurring an expense, or forfeiting our paycheck, with no end date to move towards.
My anxiety level is at its breaking point.
You will find workers leaving the nursing homes. I love my job, my patients and my coworkers. I have a difficult choice to make.
I know this is nothing compared to what POTUS goes through every day. You, dear President, are a better person than am I. o7